Of course, while there has been a steady month-on-month increase in paid-for text services, complaints about dodgy services have also been on the rise.

In particular, the number of complaints about rogue text message jumped eightfold in 2002 to more than 1,200 although premium rate services regulator, ICSTIS, reckons this is "just the tip of an iceberg of dissatisfaction".

Overall, more than 1.5 billion text messages were sent in the UK during April - that's 6.5 billion for the year so far, according to the Mobile Data Association (MDA). ®